Lighting can change a lot at different times of the day, but sometimes it can change so quickly and so radically that it is almost unbelievable.
In July of 2006 I was in Tuolumne Meadows shooting the sunset from the west end of the meadow. Among the photographs I took that evening were the following two – shot from about the same spot within a five minute span:
Lembert Dome Alpenglow, Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite National Park. July 23, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
Tuolumne Meadows Alpenglow. Yosemite National Park. July 23, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
What happened on this evening was a phenomenon that I’ve seen more than once in the Sierra at sunset. On a partly cloudy evening the sun drops towards the horizon and as the sun passes behind the clouds and the color fades you begin to suspect that it will be a mediocre sunset. But then the sun drops to very near the horizon and its light turns red and shines upwards at the bottoms of the clouds to the west and overhead – and the most unimaginable wash of color appears for a few short minutes… and then is gone.
That’s OK, I didn’t believe these colors either and I was standing (crouching, actually) right there as it happened… :-)
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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